Kitbashing as Sketching, a quick example with Genestealer Cultists

Right, back to normal posting. After taking a little break with the Eldar, I'm cricling back around to the GSC project cause time is ticking. 

I think this is a good opportunity to share a bit of kibashing method. To make gangers, I start by roughly assembling the parts with super glue, cutting plastic, adjusting, pinning... Basically all that matters here is the main features of the model and the blocking of the shapes.

 

If we draw a parallel to drawing (this the worst sentence I've ever written), this is the sketch phase. There's no connective tissue here, you can see the head is floating above the body, the peg leg is actually a peg, and the alien is very roughly clipped in half and stuck on. I think this sketch phase doesn't get the respect it deserves, cause when you're not making a predesigned model, you need to work on the pose and the composition yourself. This can involve a fair bit of cutting and clipping that can be scary :

Ok, yes I'm deliberately choosing a bonkers cut for my example but the principle remains the same. Like the basic sketching done with the mini before this one, it can (and will) all be fixed when we bust out the putty. In terms of loadout this fellow is equipped with a third arm and mining laser. The base rules that dictate stuff like equipment are wonderful springboards to give you ideas and force you to incoporate some weird shapes to represent it. But they're not the end all be all. It's important to learn to take leaps away from that, lest you find yourself just doing weapon swaps (which is boring, fite me Necromunda reddit).

Over our sketch, we can use a ton of different things to finish the kitbash. Here is Tamiya Quick Type, wire, UV resin and Liquid Greenstuff for texture. The aim is not just to smooth out the transitions between rough plastic parts but also to reinforce the narrative of the sketch. With this guy being split in half, I wanted some sort of sludge to drip in between his halves and the gun. Like an evil grilled cheese I guess. For the second ganger the idea is the same but involves more precise sculpting. The face melting into the tyranid was deceptively easy to do. We know the shape we need, dicated by the sketch, so the main thing is to make it gross and mutated. The legs have more of the stringy cheese from the previous guy, empasizing the shambling movement.

I've got more gangers done, but I'm keeping them hidden for now, at least until I start writing about the painting. But I suppose I can show you one more thing before leaving for today.

This lady is The Sphinx, our gang leader, she grafted herself onto this new body, and his ready to attempt more wonderful experiments in the underhive. The puff and slash sleeves on the codex cover are so sick I had to replicate the look. The little side sirgery table was a great accident of how the push-fit barbgaunts come together and it's one of my favorite details I've done in a while. So that's it, the gang is built and ready for paint. Which leaves me about a month to finish the board and paint the entire thing. It's gonna be tight. Next time you see those, I'll be showing off the progress on the display board.

 

xoxo

-Noé